• January – English poet
Edmund Spenser is buried near
Geoffrey Chaucer at
Westminster Abbey, beginning the tradition of
Poets' Corner. • Spring/Summer – The
Globe Theatre is built in
Southwark, at this time beyond the jurisdiction of the London city authorities, utilising material from
The Theatre. •
June 4 – The
Bishops' Ban of 1599:
Middleton's
Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satires and
Marston's
Scourge of Villainy are publicly burned as the English ecclesiastical authorities crack down on the craze for satire in the past year.
Richard Bancroft,
Bishop of London and
John Whitgift,
Archbishop of Canterbury tighten their enforcement of existing censorship. Earlier, minor works like pamphlets and plays were being published only with the approval of the Wardens of the
Stationers Company and without ecclesiastical review; this arrangement is terminated. •
June 7 –
John Day kills fellow playwright
Henry Porter, allegedly in self-defence. •
September 21 – The first recorded performance of Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar takes place at the
Globe Theatre in
London, according to the Swiss traveller
Thomas Platter the Younger. • Late –
War of the Theatres:
Satire, being prohibited in print, breaks out in the London theatres. In
Histriomastix, Marston satirizes
Jonson's pride through the character Chrisoganus; Jonson responds by satirizing Marstons's wordy style in
Every Man out of His Humour, acted by the
Lord Chamberlain's Men. • The English comic actor
Will Kempe leaves the
Lord Chamberlain's Men earlier in the year, probably to be replaced by the end of it by
Robert Armin. •
King James VI of Scotland arranges for a company of English players to erect a playhouse and perform in his country. • The first printing in England of
Richard de Bury's
The Philobiblon (1345) is made by Oxford bibliophile
Thomas James. ==New books==